Green News, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit, Environment, Healing, Peace, Political Resistance in Florida. News gathering space for Crimes Against Humanity & Ecocide in the Gulf of Toxico & after affects on life here. Now covering FRACKING, MINING, LNG PIPELINES, WATER QUALITY & so many more environmental issues. Updates from WISE WOMEN MEDIA--THE RADIO SHOW & CHALLENGING THE RHETORIC. Hoodooing in the Green Swamp & other Wild Places throughout our State.

"I have been tested and I, Heather Dixey have these chemicals in my blood. I have not worked the clean up and have not eaten seafood since the oil hit my area. In fact I have been out of the area for two months over the summer to detox from being violently ill..."

Dr. Wilma Subra, Louisiana physiological biochemist interviewed in the award-winning documentary "Gasland," will report on her recent blood test results on the residents of the Gulf Coast. Tests most Doctors refuse to perform, tests lawyers disbelieve, tests that prove that Corexit is making it's way into our food supply. She is founder and president of the Subra Company of New Iberia, LA. She has been providing blood testing to those exposed to the dispersant Corexit to provide proof the chemicals are finding their way into the seafood and into our bodies.

Friday, February 25, 2011

***Americans need to READ and HEED...This is probably one of the most important articles being circulated right now.

The Gulf Blue Plague is Sanctioned Bio-terrorism

(WorldVisionPortal) – While the vast majority of Americans were deceived into focusing their attention solely on BP’s underwater “dog and pony video show” and professed chemical “dispersants,” the biological war initiated within the Gulf of Mexico battleground was already a raging bacterial inferno.

Those of us who live on the Gulf Coast have always hunkered down and survived deadly storms, such as hurricanes Charley and Katrina. We have always picked ourselves up from out of the rubble and rebuilt. We are survivors. It’s a part of what living in “hurricane alley” is all about. But we have never faced an invisible storm that attacks in absolute silence with no advanced warning. We have never confronted an engineered biological terror that can’t be seen nor heard.

We are on the vanguard of the largest cover-up in American history. More than a week after the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster began, District of Columbia military Commander-in-Chief Obama emphasized how nothing would be done by British Petroleum or any other group without it being cleared and approved by his Executive office. I presume this was previously agreed to on February 13, 2010 at the White House meeting between Obama and BP since this happened to be the same day BP was granted a U.S. Government permit to abandon a Mississippi Canyon 252 well that was fracturing and had uncontrollable gas bursts.

This new “Gulf War” will linger on for centuries as it alters the entire biosphere. It’s destroying our families, friends and neighbors from the inside out because it’s a genetic war. This purposefully engineered biological war will soon become a world war as the horizontally transferred synthetic genes extend their silent tendrils through the water and air. It’s already begun to abruptly manifest in fish, birds, mammals, and humans.

What’s taking place in the Gulf of Mexico is nothing less than officially authorized bio-terrorism for those of us who live on the Gulf coast. The Gulf Blue Plague is Sanctioned Biological Terrorism.

WHO IS OUR ENEMY?

Who has raged this war against not only humanity, but against our entire earth and all life that dwells on this planet?

Our enemy is whoever (pronounced “POTUS”) ordered the use of synthetic genomics in the Gulf of Mexico for the purpose of crude oil bio-remediation… joined in locked arms by those in authority (pronounced “Governors”) who have knowingly allowed it to take place… while usually accepting free money (pronounced “bribe”) for advertising deliberate lies to the public about the safety of Gulf seafood, water, beaches, and air.

By their actions, they have declared war against all of us. Call it whatever you wish, but in my opinion this is sanctioned terrorism. I take it personally because it just doesn’t affect me; it touches every member of my extended family, my friends, and my neighbors here on the Gulf coast.

While the vast majority of Americans were deceived into focusing their attention solely on BP's underwater "dog and pony video show" and professed chemical "dispersants," the biological war initiated within the Gulf of Mexico battleground was already a raging bacterial inferno.

Those of us who live on the Gulf Coast have always hunkered down and survived deadly storms, such as hurricanes Charley and Katrina. We have always picked ourselves up from out of the rubble and rebuilt. We are survivors. It's a part of what living in "hurricane alley" is all about. But we have never faced an invisible storm that attacks in absolute silence with no advanced warning. We have never confronted an engineered biological terror that can't be seen nor heard.

We are on the vanguard of the largest cover-up in American history ...

Health department workers found elevated levels of fecal coliform and enterococci in two samplings this week.
Enterococci harmlessly live in the digestive tracts of humans and animals but can cause rashes or serious gastrointestinal illness if ingested.
The presence of enteric bacteria is an indication of fecal pollution, which may come from stormwater runoff, animals or human sewage.
It is the first advisory for area beaches this year and officials do not know what caused a spike in bacteria. Typically, high bacteria readings come after heavy rains which pushes stormwater from drainage ditches into the Gulf.
“We're not really sure why,” said county spokeswoman Dianne Shipley. “There has been no rain, no recent sewerage spills.”
The health department monitors water quality weekly at 16 sites along Sarasota County's 34 miles of beaches.
Precautionary signs have been posted at Venice Public Beach and Turtle Beach, advising people not to go in the water. The Health Department will conduct follow-up water sampling. Test results will be available by the weekend.
No other beach areas in Sarasota County are affected by this advisory.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

I went fishing off of The Gulf Sate Pier in Gulf Shores on Monday Feb 21st 2011. I purchased frozen bait from the pier. The majority had black in their lungs. I have tried to contact legitimate news sources to cover this and share my photos and not having any luck. I asked the person who sold me the bait where it was from. She responded it was Bayou La Battre AL. I have proof of her response.

Dr. Ira Leifer, a marine scientist from the University of California at Santa Barbara, has been researching the geochemical nature of oil seeps and spills for over a many years. After over a decade of experience studying hydrocarbon visualization, modeling, and geochemistry in the Santa Barbara channel, Dr. Leifer developed a recognizable expertise in the area of oil spills. Soon after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in late April 2010, Dr. Leifer was sought out by the government and appointed to the National Incident Command's Flow Rate Technical Group. This group of highly specialized scientists was tasked with the responsibility of determining how much oil was leaking from the Macondo 252 wellhead. In this exclusive interview with Project Gulf Impact, Dr. Leifer expresses his frustration when asked to make scientifically sound conclusions based upon data that has been intentionally obscured and manipulated. Not only was he denied the proper quality of data after repeated requests, he also witnessed a blatant obscuring, by the media, of the results that ultimately were released by the flow rate group. BP argues that scientists have miscalculated the flow rate from the Macondo well, and that the actual spill size could be half the official estimate.

From The Daily Hurricane:

"If BP gets away with reducing the flow estimate to half of the current estimate, it will be a masterful manipulation of government regulators and inexperienced administration officials. It appears that with the media now completely ignoring this tragedy, BP will successfully lowball the flow to minimize its liability. To give you an idea of the size of this issue, let's look at a few numbers:

First, the official government estimate for flow into the Gulf is 4.9 million barrels, or about 60,000 barrels per day (this estimate is likely way low due to flow characteristics of these big deepwater wells, but that fact just complicates an already complicated subject, so I'll ignore it for now). Second, at the peak of it's "top hat" containment, BP was capturing about 25,000 barrels of oil per day, even as oil roared into the water around the cap.

So. If BP is now claiming that the flow rate was half the estimated 60,000 barrels per day, that means that when they were capturing 25,000 barrels per day, they were capturing close to all of the flow. I don't know about you, but all that oil roaring into the water around the cap looks like a lot more than nothing. Additionally, recall that on July 6, Doug Suttles actually used 53,000 barrels per day as his estimate of flow for the calculation of the amount of dispersant BP wanted to apply at the sea floor. To now assert that the flow rate was half of the government estimate, and far below their own estimate is disingenuous on the face."

Discovery News: BP OIL SPILL ALSO A DEEP-SEA GAS LEAK

Huge amounts of gases like methane and pentane spewed forth from the BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout along with the approximately 206 million gallons of crude oil.

Publishing yesterday in the journal Nature Geoscience, University of Georgia oceanographers estimated that 500,000 tons of gaseous hydrocarbons escaped during the spill. They calculated that the gas leak was the equivalent to a minimum of 1.6-1.9 million barrels of oil, but could be as high as or 2.2-3.1 million barrels of oil.

The wide range of estimates reflects the many uncertainties involved, but even the lowest figure adds significantly to the estimated amount of hydrocarbons released by the well.

“These calculations increase the accepted government estimates by about one third,” said co-author Ian MacDonald of Florida State University in a University of Georgia press release.

“Deepwater Horizon underscored how ill-prepared the nation is to respond to future accidents. As a nation, we need to hear this deep-sea Sputnik wake-up call,” said co-author Ira Leifer of the University of California-Santa Barbara.

***IMPORTANT NOTE: I am posting this article because I want the world to know what is happening here...at first I said I could not post the pictures, that readers can find them on their own, but a visual impact is needed to shock people from their apathy to a concern for LIFE here, and to hold the perpetrators of this crime responsible. I have been crying all morning...we need some help down here!!! PLEASE!!! My concern is not only for the animals, but the human impact as well. We have tourist season going on here in this part of Florida and elsewhere in the Gulf and people are swimming and hanging out at the beaches all around the Gulf Region. Why have there been no warnings or health hazard notices been issued? Why have our leaders allowed this? People are sick and dying as well. What will happen to pregnant women here?

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GULFPORT -- The industry’s leading scientist on marine mammal strandings is concerned about the deaths of baby dolphins.

Blair Mase, NOAA’s marine mammal stranding coordinator for the Southeast region, confirmed that the number of baby dolphin deaths is high.

She said the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies reports all its findings to her.

Toxic Tide -- Discovering the Health Effects of the Deepwater Disaster, Part 2, Living on Earth, February 18, 2011:

LEIFER: ...[T]hey showed up as if they had almost a millimeter of oil in the cloud. And these hydrocarbon-laden clouds - when they reach land - would in fact rain oil.

Leifer thinks this oil rain is an unprecedented oil spill phenomenon - a combination of the Gulf's high humidity and the columns of thick smoke from burning oil. A lot of things about the BP blowout made it unlike other oil spills.

Most spills happen all at once, say, when a tanker or pipe ruptures. The BP wellhead kept spewing for 87 days, sending oil to the surface in a plume that Leifer says kept pushing the oil's toxic chemicals into the air.

LEIFER: Air sampling that was conducted both on a boat and by NOAA in the atmosphere showed that this plume contained numerous components and that these components were...many of them are toxic...

WASHINGTON—The catch-phrase "chemical body burden," or the presence of hazardous chemicals and their residues in humans, has started to be teased apart by researchers and environmental health advocates in recent years.

Good thing, because awareness of this issue is rising in the public sphere, and more Americans are obtaining laboratory results for the extent of chemicals lingering in their bodies, compounds that include pthalates (plasticizers), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), VOCs (volatile organic compounds such as those found in some paints),bisphenol A, lead, arsenic, mercury, asbestos and chlorpyrifos (an insecticide). Tested individuals remain uncertain about how to respond to this information, even as they see potentially linked poor negative health outcomes in their families. Some of these results are made available to subjects participating in household exposures studies who typically are eager to receive their personal results, compare them with national trends and learn how to mitigate impacts.

The hospital staff continued to rehydrate and treat me as if there was nothing truly wrong other than I continued to vomit, was horribly deyhdrated and still suffered vertigo as well as pain and total muscle fatique. I had to be kept on demerol for the pain. They ran gastrointestinal tests including upper and lower GI looking for possible intestinal cancer because my platelets were so out of balance. I had to consume an egg sandwich containing radioactive dye for the tests and in the middle of the tests I started again to get sick. It took in excess of 7 hours to control the nausea yet again.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

James aka "Catfish" Miller was re-admitted to Biloxi Regional Hospital again on Tuesday, February, 15th. This was his third trip to the hospital. He entered the hospital uncontrollably nauseous, vomiting and foaming at the mouth. He vomited for 2 days straight before going to the hospital. He had blurred vision (vertigo), was sweating profusely and finally had to return. They couldn't stop the nausea there either and it took over 1 1/2 days for the hospital to get control of it. He had nothing to eat for a period of 7 days!!!!. They had to re-hydrate him, pump him with Vitamin B-12, potassium, steroids, and saline. He was dehydrated, his platelets were all out of balance. White and red blood cell counts were off as well.

WASHINGTON -- Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist's video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor.

That report is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012.

At a science conference in Washington, marine scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes would be gone by then. It wasn't.

Samantha Joye, UGA / AP

Marine scientist Samantha Joye claims in a report that oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and isn't degrading as hoped. Here, one of her photos, taken on Dec. 1, shows a dead crab with oil residue near it on a still-damaged sea floor about 10 miles north of the BP oil rig accident.

"There's some sort of a bottleneck we have yet to identify for why this stuff doesn't seem to be degrading," Joye told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington. Her research and those of her colleagues contrasts with other studies that show a more optimistic outlook about the health of the gulf, saying microbes did great work munching the oil.

"Magic microbes consumed maybe 10 percent of the total discharge, the rest of it we don't know," Joye said, later adding: "there's a lot of it out there."

The head of the agency in charge of the health of the Gulf said Saturday that she thought that "most of the oil is gone." And a Department of Energy scientist, doing research with a grant from BP from before the spill, said his examination of oil plumes in the water column show that microbes have done a "fairly fast" job of eating the oil. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab scientist Terry Hazen said his research differs from Joye's because they looked at different places at different times.

Joye's research was more widespread, but has been slower in being published in scientific literature.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

ALERT to anyone in the midwest .. from Beebe / Greenbriar Arkansas, to Pensacola Florida, up to North Carolina ! This effects the ENTIRE north american Craton (or continental plate) .. and the faultline which run through the midwest and lower south eastern United States.
A 3.5 magnitude quake DIRECTLY beneath the oil drilling platforms off the coast of Florida...
Gulf Shores / Pensacola just 2 miles away !
After watching the video above.. you MUST watch the video on the SALT DOME!
Here it is:

The salt dome video is by youtube user - 2010THECOUNTDOWN - aka (Henning).
I suggest subscribing to his channel :http://www.youtube.com/user/2010thecountdown
His video which i've linked is SPOT ON about the salt dome in the Gulf of Mexico, the BP drilling puncturing it, and the connection to the New Madrid earthquake fault zone.
This quake in Florida, and specifically, the AREA in which it happened is suspicious to say the LEAST ! I've been RIGHT there! 3 miles off the coast of gulf shores ARE SEVERAL OIL PLATFORMS!

Program Six - The Gulf of Mexico 'Human & Environmental Aftermath - Reaching for Solutions'

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill or the Macondo blowout) is a massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, now considered the largest offshore spill in U.S. history.Some estimates placed it by late May or early June as among the largest oil spills in the world with tens of millions of gallons spilled to date. The spill stems from a sea floor 10,000 foot deep oil gusher (MC252) that followed the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others. The gusher, now estimated by the quasi-official Flow Rate Technical Group to be flowing at 20,000 to 40,000 barrels (840,000 to 1,700,000 US gallons; 3,200,000 to 6,400,000 litres) of crude oil per day, originates from a deepwater wellhead 5,000 feet (1,500 m) below the ocean surface. The exact spill flow rate is uncertain in part because BP has refused to allow independent scientists to perform accurate measurements and is a matter of ongoing debate. The resulting oil slick covers a surface area of at least 2,500 square miles (6,500 km2), with the exact size and location of the slick fluctuating from day to day depending on weather conditions.

GULF062810.jpg

Scientist Scott Porter

Scott Porter is a staff scientist at LUMCON and has over 21 years experience as an investigative biologist with an environmental survey company – EcoLogic Environmental. His began as an oil field consultant whose zone of study includes the coastal Gulf States with a concentration in the Louisiana's estuaries and petroleum platforms. Through his services as an independent survey biologist specializing in biological resource analysis, the P I has collected over 5,000 biological reef samples and has over 3,000 scuba dives from 1988-2009. Mr. Porter holds a degree in Marine Biology. He has discovered new species on the platform that have yet to be documented in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.

Guest: Ian R Crane

An ex-oilfield executive, Ian now lectures and writes on the geo-political webs that are being spun; with particular focus on US Hegemony and the NWO agenda for control of global resources. Since 2007 Ian has focused his efforts on raising public awareness of the pernicious attack on the global population in the name of corporate globalisation and harmonisation; with particular focus on the excesses of Codex Alimentarius. Ian is an independent researcher; he is completely self-funded.

The views expressed in his talks and DVD's are based entirely upon his personal knowledge and research. Prior to his retirement from the corporate arena, Ian enjoyed a career of 25 years in telecommunications and international oilfield services, a career that provided the opportunity to live & work in the U.K., Continental Europe, the Middle East & Houston, Texas.

Dr. Wilma Subra - Environmental Scientist

Committed to protecting the environment and the health and safety of citizens, Wilma Subra started Subra Company in 1981. Subra Company is a chemistry lab and environmental consulting firm in New Iberia, LA. Mrs. Subra provides technical assistance to citizens, across the United States and some foreign countries, concerned with their environment by combining technical research and evaluation. This information is then presented to community members so that strategies may be developed to address their local struggles. Utilizing the information gained from community involvement, the needs identified are translated into policy changes at the State and Federal level through service on multi-stake holder committees. She has just completed a seven year term as Vice-Chair of the Environmental Protection Agency National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT), a five year term on the National Advisory Committee of the U. S. Representative to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and a six year term on the EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) where she served as a member of the Cumulative Risk and Impacts Working Group of the NEJAC Council, and chaired the NEJAC Gulf Coast Hurricanes Work Group. Mrs. Subra holds degrees in Microbiology/Chemistry from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She received the MacArthur Fellowship Award from the MacArthur Foundation for helping ordinary citizens understand, cope with and combat environmental issues in their communities and was one of three finalist in the Environmental Category of the 2004 Volvo for Life Award.

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The next round of hearings into the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster is now underway in Houston, Texas. Ian R Crane, a former oil industry executive and now a lecturer in geopolitics, provides unique insights into events leading up to the rig explosion in his new DVD presentation ‘‘BP - Population Reduction and the End of an Age’. He warns of a BP legacy which will affect health and food supplies for many years to come.

How the Spill has affected the People

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Please go to the original link here and click on the player on the lower left hand side of the page to listen to the show!

Friday, February 18, 2011

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is once again testing Panhandle beaches.

The last time FDEP conducted tests were Aug. 16.

FDEP “is initiating weekly beach monitoring for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and DOSS (an ingredient in the dispersant corexit) in water samples in preparation for this year’s swim season,” according to an e-mail from the DEP’s Dave Whiting, biology program administrator. …

The department will also be performing targeted beach sand sampling in “areas of special concern.”

He needs to fly from NOLA to LA...
NOW or ASAP.
Condition is deteriorating and situation is dire.
He is in a wheelchair and having constant seizures.
Aircraft will need to be equipped for medical transport....If anyone has any way of helping, please contact me.

Leave a comment on this blog with your contact info if you can do this...

Thursday, February 17, 2011

22 Year Old Paul Doomm from Florida traveled to Wilma Subra, MD's health forum in New Orleans on 2-5-11. Paul apparently was chemically poisoned by Oil & Dispersants after swimming in the Gulf at Navarre Beach, FL and Eating seafood in July. He has now seen 93 doctors, been to 14 hospitals and has uncontrolable seizures every day. Recent scans show lesions on his brain. Prior to moving to Florida for US Marine traning Paul was a healthy young adult male.WARNING: SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND THE CONTENT DISTURBING. THIS IS THE LONG EDIT. THE SHORTER VERSION IS PERHAPS A LITTLE LESS DISTURBING (Slightly).

*****LATEST UPDATE ON 2-7-11 by Trisha JamesI just spoke with Paul and Kathy at length. Paul is in good spirits.When Paul arrived at the hospital in New Orleans on Feb. 5, the doctors had said "we are performing an exorcism." As we spoke, we all agreed this is very demeaning and an unprofessional manner coming from a medical doctor.Paul had been swimming and surfing in various areas of the Gulf Coast which included Navarre Beach, the National Wildlife Preserve, Pensacola and Portofino. An independent contractor is going to lay out 115 feet of boom in these areas. This boom draws water samples, as well as pulls out the oil and corexit in the areas.Matt Smith from PGI will also be helping Paul with additional testing - PH levels and Corexit in Paul's system. When Paul's blood pressure rises, Kathy knows that her son will soon start seizing which is at around 110. Kathy is an RN and has been specifically told that "she knows too much." Honestly, the doctors don't want people like Kathy around them.As soon as Paul arrived back home in Navarre on early Sunday morning, his nose started stuffing up. He is also very "light sensitive" which may have affected his seizure at Truth Out in NOLA. The camera lighting was very bright, as it had bothered me also.Starting tomorrow we should be paying close attention to the national media as Paul will be reporting on NBC, MSN and CNN. 20/20 has time constraints and requested he travel for their interview. I really don't understand why a webcam would not suffice, but that's just my opinion. One of the reporters even asked Michelle if Paul was faking it (as I shake my head with that absurdity.)Paul has also been contacted by France and Greece, which could lead to future medical endeavors.On Wednesday Paul will be travelling back to NOLA for interviewing. Paul will also be the recipient of a 6-month herbal treatment.I, as a fellow Navarrian, will be keeping close tabs with the Doomm family. I will be there for them if they need me, and in turn, I will also be following up to check on Paul's status.May God Bless this sweet young man and his loving family!
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UPDATE FROM FEB 16TH!
Paul Doomm was in a NOLA hospital today for testing, per article below, he was 2 be placed in medically induced coma. We got word earlier that he would be placed in the psych ward...3 of us started calling the media and we all spoke to the hospital administrator. We feel we averted a disaster. They wanted to silence Paul, we were not going to let that happen!
The reason that I posted this is because it is a human rights violation and more and more people in the Gulf Region are experiencing a lack of concern from the medical industry. Their doctors are calling them crazy instead of finding out why they are symptomatic. The doctors in most cases refuse to associate the symptoms of chemical poisoning with what is happening in real time in the Gulf of Toxico. Just like we who are reporting on this are called conspiracy theorists by most. Paul was a healthy young man heading into the Marines before he swam in the water. For the media and our own government at all levels to refuse to admit something is wrong in our environment and that people are sick and dying is a crime against humanity. This is chemical and corporate ecocide and genocide...there is no other way to explain it or use other terminology.
Might I add that putting Paul in a psych ward would serve their purposes...to SILENCE him permanently.

He is now in the Neuro Ward...being tested...at the 11th hour, the hospital administrators changed their tune after they found out that media was on the way...
***I will be providing updates as soon as I have them...
PASS THE WORD...

***ADDITIONAL NOTE: We were thanked over the phone by the Doomm family and by Paul himself for doing this direct action.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Paul Doom [sic] was the young man in the wheelchair at a recent Gulf Coast Forum, who bravely spoke up to tell the world how he has been afflicted with brain lesions, paralyzed in his left leg, and multiple daily seizures as a result of swimming in the Gulf of Mexico in Florida following the BP Oil Disaster.

Tonight, February 15, 2011, we have been notified that Paul has been hospitalized and is being placed in a medically inducted [sic]coma so that doctors can try to help him.

Please pray for Paul, and please share this note on your wall. Paul wanted the world to know how ill he is because of the BP Oil Disaster, and we can help deliver his message for him by spreading this note, and his video.

If you have not seen the video from the forum earlier this month, please watch this now. Please post this on the walls of all of your local elected officials and demand that the people of the Gulf Coast receive help and medical assistance immediately. There are many, many people who are sick and suffering in the Gulf states. Please help them, and please pray for Paul and his family. Bless you all.

Chevron Petroleum Corporation is attempting to slither out of an $8 billion judgment rendered yesterday by a trial court in Ecuador for cancer deaths, illnesses and destruction caused by its Texaco unit.

I've been there, in Ecuador.

I met the victims. They didn't lose their shrimp boats; they lost their kids. Emergildo Criollo, chief of the Cofan natives of the Amazon, told me about his three-year-old. "He went swimming, then began vomiting blood." Then he died.

"We're Poisoned. We're Sick."

Gulf Coast residents protesting the lack of adequate response from BP or the government to health and environmental risks. (Photo: Erika Blumenfeld)

Residents who live along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, all the way from Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, to well into western Florida, continue to tell me of acute symptoms they attribute to ongoing exposure to toxic chemicals being released from BP's crude oil and the toxic Corexit dispersants used to sink it.

"You can't even go to the store without seeing sick people! You can hear them talking to people and they think they have the flu or a virus. I saw a girl that works at a local store yesterday that had to leave work because she was so sick! Others, throughout the entire store were hacking & coughing. It's crazy that this has been allowed to happen to all of us!"

Oil continues to wash ashore. That which was already there, usually in the form of tar balls or mats of tar, is being uncovered by the weather.

Four of the fragile barrier islands of Mississippi have had four million pounds of oil removed, thus far. The embattled coastline never gets a break. However, BP cleanup crews, who returned to work the first week of January after an 11-day break, removed another 11,000 pounds of oil from Petit Bois Island Thursday, January 6, and another 3,800 pounds from Horn Island.

"The northerly wind seems to do the uncovering [of the oil]," a cleanup supervisor said. "Southerly winds appear to be covering it up."

"This is the biggest cover-up in the history of America," Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser told reporters on a boat trip he took with Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials last week.

Nungesser was enraged by finding vast areas of Louisiana marsh soiled with oil, while no protective boom or cleanup workers were within sight.

As BP's stock price continues to improve, the Coast Guard, NOAA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency all continue to go to great lengths to convince the public, particularly those living along the Coast, that the air, water and seafood are perfectly safe.

Seafood continues to be fished from the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo: Erika Blumenfeld)

Monday, February 14, 2011

As of February 1st, 2011, it is estimated that between 800,000 and 4 million gallons of toxic chemical dispersants have been sprayed or poured into the Gulf of Mexico in an on-going operation. The broad-scale distribution of these poisonous substances has been justified by statements such as “trade-offs have to be made”.

The “tradeoffs” have been made and, because toxic dispersants were used, we now have millions of gallons of oil laced with toxic dispersants still suspended throughout the water column and on the sea floor, shifting constantly with the currents. This is causing severe, long-term harm to the public’s health, marine life, the environment, the economy and the Gulf’s way of life.

The EPA authorized the use of toxic chemical dispersants to sink the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil accident violating the Clean Water Act, and the EPA (specifically Lisa Jackson, Dana Tulis, and Sam Coleman) with the help of NOAA, (specifically Jane Lubchenco, Ed Levine, and Charlie Henry) have blocked the efforts of the Coast Guard and the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama to protect their natural resources and the health, safety and welfare of their citizens as guaranteed by the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

On January 16, 2011, I wrote a letter to President Obama (copy attached) requesting answers to a number of specific questions and serious concerns brought to my attention by my constituents. It’s been over three weeks since that letter arrived at the White House and, at this point, it appears that I will not get a response from the President or his administration.

Consequently, my constituents and I have decided to start a petition (viewable at www.agcrowe.com) which will be directed to you and launched within the next few days. Our goal is simple. We need your help to stop this destructive activity immediately and begin implementing proven, safe, non-toxic solutions which are already available and ready to be deployed.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Lessons from Gulf spill slipping away

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study how the BP oil disaster affected the Gulf of Mexico is vanishing, with political infighting and bureaucracy tying up hundreds of millions of dollars in grants promised to independent scientists months ago.
Repeated postponements, a shortage of equipment and a lack of information from the group responsible for doling out the money have undermined research in the crucial first year after the disaster. The lag may make it impossible to fully understand the oil spill’s impact on the Gulf ecosystem, scientists said.
“Oil is a moving target; with every day of passing time, we get further and further from the acute effects of the oil and it becomes harder and harder to trace those effects,” said Ian MacDonald, a biological oceanographer at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
From late last April to mid-July, the blown BP Deepwater Horizon rig spewed 186 million to 227 million gallons of crude into the Gulf, adding up to the world’s largest peacetime oil spill. BP also doused the Gulf with at least 1.8 million gallons of chemicals to disperse the crude.
Last May, in the midst of the disaster, BP promised $500 million for a decade of Gulf research – enough to give the ecosystem unprecedented scrutiny.
Almost immediately, however, Gulf-area politicians – former Gov. Charlie Crist was among them – demanded control of the money, aiming to keep it in their states.
Since then, only $40 million has been given out. Scientists eager to find where the oil went, how it moved through the food chain and whether the chemical dispersants did more harm than good may remain idle if more money is not disbursed soon.
A new 20-person board that controls the grant money has yet to produce a research plan or even begin asking scientists to submit proposals.
Meanwhile, scientists say important data is slipping out of reach because too few researchers can get in the field to study the spill.
“It’s not that nothing has been done. It’s a matter of the breadth of the work,” said Christopher D’Elia, dean and professor at Louisiana State University’s School of the Coast and Environment.
In Barataria Bay, Louisiana’s most oil-slimed estuary, scientists are monitoring changes in the ecosystem, including water chemistry, wetland plant growth, erosion, and oyster and crab abundance.
Delays could make it more difficult to tie future problems, such as a potential crash in bait fish, to the spill.
“A number of people are worried that we are going to miss getting out in the field in the strengths and numbers we need to,” D’Elia said.
That problem is compounded by a shortage of research ships. “Are we supposed to go out in row-boats?” MacDonald asked.
The delay has already caused a gap in coordinated, long-term research that could hamper our understanding of the spill, said Bob Gagosian, president and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, a nonprofit that manages grants for ocean research equipment.
Data collection needs to be consistent to get the best long-term results. Now, scientists are essentially collecting data in the dark because the board has not offered guidance on the research it wants or the standards it will require.
“We basically have lost – in a long-term, 10-year program – the first nine months,” Gagosian said.
But board chairman Rita Colwell, a public health professor at University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, is optimistic.
Colwell attributed the delay to the time it took to assemble the 20-person board and said the initial $40 million was enough to start significant research.
“Things are moving along extremely well,” she said.
But even under the best circumstances, it will take at least until June to fund new projects, well past the critical spring spawning season that scientists hoped to thoroughly observe this year. “Clearly we’re going to miss that because the money won’t be available in time,” said Ed Overton, an oil researcher and professor emeritus at Louisiana State University.The political fight
Just as the BP spill was unprecedented, so was the amount of money suddenly available for research in the Gulf, a body of water that many scientists have long considered overlooked.
But the proposed windfall gave rise to some nasty politics. Gulf Coast scientists were concerned that the panel BP chose to dispense the money did not include anyone based in the area. State governors wanted the money spent in their backyards. Some politicians, worried about their budgets, even pushed to have the money diverted to their own restoration projects, D’Elia said.
The federal government got involved, too, urging BP to work with the governors, who insisted that the money go through the Gulf of Mexico Alliance – a governors’ federation aimed at improving the Gulf’s environmental and economic health.
BP and the governors agreed last September to funnel the money through the alliance and to form a research board with 10 appointees from BP and two from each of the five Gulf states.
It took until December for the alliance to incorporate, hire staff and make board appointments official.
“These appointments should have been made months ago. There shouldn’t have been this delay,” said Shirley Pomponi, council chair for the Florida Institute of Oceanography, a consortium of state research institutions and universities.
In Florida, she said, the governor’s race also created delays.
The board members, all top scientists in fields ranging from marine sciences to economic development, finally met for the first time in December.
“And of course there were the holidays intervening,” Colwell said. They have not met again, except by conference call.
Now the board faces myriad obstacles, including the need to work through potential conflicts of interest. Many of the board members head or work for institutions that will apply for grants, Pomponi said.
Despite the delay, Pomponi said governors made the right decision to get Gulf-based scientists on the board. She said she does not believe the research will suffer because scientists could tap the initial $40 million award and have sought other means of funding.
“I definitely think it was worth it because I think it brings a scientific – and quite frankly political – perspective from the Gulf state region,” Pomponi said.Worth the wait?
Whether the wait is worth it, scientists are frustrated by the board’s lack of communication, as well as the funding lag.
Scientists were told the board would ask for research proposals in December, then January and now the end of this month.
“We’d like to get organized and we’d like to get our research plans finalized,” D’Elia said.
The board also has not said what kind of research it wants.
“We’re extremely baffled about how we should position ourselves to deliver the science that is desired,” MacDonald said.
Once the board starts accepting research proposals, it will take at least six weeks for scientists to submit applications and more time for the board to select projects to fund.
Awards are expected in June, but D’Elia said August or September may be more realistic.
Colwell indicated a desire to spread the money equally over the 10-year period, which was not BP’s original intent.
BP representative Hejdi Feick said the company planned to make awards based on the proposals that came in, not a set yearly amount.
“I don’t think at the time we were going to do $50 million a year,” Feick said.
Scientists said it makes sense, and is customary, to put more money into research the first two years after a catastrophic event because data collected closer to the event is more valuable.
MacDonald said the researchers are in “limbo.”
“It’s very odd,” he said.

Despite the fact that 300,000 seafood samples from the Gulf have been tested by FDA and NOAA labs — with almost every sample showing no trace of oil or dispersant — some individuals claim that “independent” tests reveal toxins in the local catch.

What explains the discrepancy between federal and independent tests? And which test results should a consumer trust?

According to Don Kraemer, FDA’s Deputy Director in the Office of Food Safety, the agency has been surprised by the number of media stories that give credibility to “junk science” and questionable lab tests.

“We‘ve learned some things through this process about public messaging,” Kraemer said at a recent meeting with Louisiana seafood-industry leaders. “There were some environmental groups that we didn’t cater to, with our communications, and in retrospect, maybe we should have.

The Louisiana and Gulf seafood delegation meets with FDA officials in a U.S. Senate hearing room.

“We’re working now to address independent reports that aren’t scientifically sound. And we’ll continue to test seafood in the Gulf to demonstrate its safety.”

Independent tests are often driven by fear and suspicion, not good science. For example, several months ago, some individuals began testing Gulf seafood for traces of dispersant, criticizing the FDA and NOAA for not doing the same

“Our chemists knew dispersants wouldn’t show up in test results,” says Kraemer. “But in response to public concern, we developed a test for it anyway, even though we knew it wouldn’t be there — and it wasn’t.”

Since then, a peer-reviewed study has confirmed that the dispersant did rapidly biodegrade, except for minimal concentrations that remain in a small patch of ocean. FDA chemists had been right.

“Oil spills have been around for a long time, so we know which markers are the right ones to test for to determine whether toxins are present,” Kraemer says. “In this case, we knew which PAHs would be good markers and would clearly tell us whether oil was present.”

For the average consumer, though, who isn’t familiar with the science behind FDA’s and NOAA’s rigorous testing protocols, it’s easy to believe a sensational headline saying that a handful of oysters tested positive for this or that.

It’s easy to forget the unbiased scientists who work on behalf of public health, who ran each of the 300,000 samples through sensory and chemical analysis — and found no trace of toxins.